Senate says some people don’t deserve unemployment checks (AUDIO)

The state senate says some people get fired for doing such stupid things that they don’t deserve to collect unemployment checks. The senate has approved a law change that will make it harder for them to get them.

Senator Will Krause of Lee’s Summit sponsors the bill that he says will bring common sense to the state’s unemployment benefits law.

He says people who urinate into another worker’s coffee should not get benefits–although in one case, the worker did. Nor should someone caught stealing and fired but never criminally charged get checks. Nor should somebody fired for pinching another employee’s bottom. And he and other senators can go on and on. In fact, a couple of them did relate stories during debate of workers who did something stupid or something underhanded, got fired, and still got checks.

Some senators say the state employment security division lacks common sense and lacks reason. But Krause says it’s not the division’s fault. “The Department of Labor is following decisions based on what the court has interpreted from our laws,” he says. So he’s changing the law to re-define “misconduct” as a reason for firing. The proposed new law would say a person can be canned for willfully ignoring the employers standards of behavior and best interests. The bill protects employees for behavior away from the workplace unless it is related to job performance or the job environment.